-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The captain and chief officer of a Chinese-registered ship that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef will appear in an Australian court Thursday , charged with damaging the reef .

The Shen Neng 1 veered more than 27 kilometers -LRB- 17 miles -RRB- off course and ended up on a shoal in the Reef on April 3 , prompting concerns of an oil spill near the world 's largest coral reef system .

On Wednesday , the Australian Federal Police announced that they have arrested the 47-year-old Chinese master of the vessel and the 44-year-old chief officer .

The captain was charged with liability for the vessel . He faces a maximum fine of A$ 55,000 -LRB- U.S. $ 50,852 -RRB- .

The chief officer is accused of being on watch when the ship caused the damage . He faces up to three years in prison and a fine of A$ 220,000 -LRB- U.S. $ 203,411 -RRB- . Authorities did not disclose the name of either man .

The ship was carrying about 65,000 tons of coal to China from the Australian port of Gladstone when it ran aground on the shoal -- a combination of shell and sand -- near the southernmost point of the Great Barrier Reef , just north of Great Keppel Island .

About 950 tons of oil were on board .

A small oil slick caused by the ship 's grounding did not threaten the Great Barrier Reef after crews sprayed dispersants on it and surface netting helped to contain it .

Officials said the ship 's captain had a 10-mile-wide channel to navigate through in an area where pilots are n't needed -- a relatively wide open section of sea , 70 kilometers -LRB- 43 miles -RRB- off shore and away from the larger mass of coral most people associate with the Great Barrier Reef .

`` He got 15 nautical miles -LRB- 17.3 miles -RRB- off course , which is just outrageous , '' Adam Nicholson , a spokesman for Maritime Safety Queensland , said at the time .

Nicholson likened it to a car veering off a 2-mile wide road .

`` We have thousands of boats moving in that same space every year and nothing has ever happened like this , '' he said .

The Great Barrier Reef is made up of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands spanning over 2,600 km -LRB- 1,600 miles -RRB- off the coast of Queensland in the Coral Sea .

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Chinese ship officers to appear in court after veering onto Great Barrier Reef

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Ship was over 17 miles off course when it ended up in Reef area

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Ship 's chief officer faces maxiumum 3-year jail term